We too have a wilderness corner where all the leaves go without first being
chopped up by a lawn mower. Critters of every kind appreciate that, not just
birds In talking on the phone a couple of days ago with my sister, Ann Morgan,
I told her I had not raked a leaf. I think I detected an expression of shock
over our voice only phone. One of the perks of living out in the country with
no immediate neighbors is that you can do things like that whenever you #%*!
well please. Since I talked to her, a 1.1 inch rain accompanied by tornado
warnings has leached some portion of the nutrients from the fallen leaves back
into the ground where they were laying. You’d never notice a mass loss from the
leaves but you will later see the results of leaching by the deeper green of
the grass beneath. I’m raking them now.
For Preston, who has been corresponding with me on infinite other topics
besides birds, yes I got my calves to market this morning. Any one of the three
I sold outweighs me by more than three fold and none fears me in the least.
Even so, I never have an object of any kind in my hands as I am loading them. I
simply guide them along with body language and my voice. I do often have to
shout “Go! Go! Go!” if one is hesitant about stepping onto the trailer, but all
eventually do indeed go.
Frank Lyne
frank@xxxxxxxxxxx - near Dot in Logan County, KY
On Dec 8, 2021, at 11:24 AM, Susan Harkins <ssharkins@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have a large wild area in a back corner that serves as a brush pile. It’s a
mess, but everything wild loves it. Along the top of the fence, a wild grape
vine has taken over. A few years ago, I found a Cooper’s hawk sitting back
there just waiting… I scared him off unfortunately, I hadn’t meant to
interrupt a meal. Almost all of my yard debris goes back there. At times it’s
four or five feet tall but by spring, you can barely tell it was there. I
think it’s one of the best things anyone who cares about protecting wildlife
can do.
A few years back (it’s been a while), the KDFWR helped restore the banks
along the train tracks out in Woodford County – I forget the name of the
place, but there’s a small museum and they offer a fun train ride. It’s at a
county park. But, the department helped put in a bunch of brush piles along
that track.
Susan H.
My vote is a large brush pile, not far from your feeders. I had a tree
trimmer with a boom truck here 10 days ago, and partly to save money, I had
the two tree trimmers just stack the debris where it was cut. So two large
piles in our yard, which we will remove at our pace, and for the exercise, in
the spring. You should see these brush piles with Red Cardinals and Brown and
Black Towhees, and more.
Preston at Browder, Muhl. Co., KY
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